With the uproar with brexit and the European Union, Parliamentary sovereignty is an interesting topic to discuss.

Unfortunately the majority who voted to leave the European Union, did so with the presumption that this will reduce immigration. There is a larger part that actually plays part on why people wanted to vote to leave, this being the supremacy of parliament.

Parliament have taken a hit as far as supremacy goes, this comes from certain directives and regulations that apply to the UK since the European communities Act 1972 came into effect. In short, what this means is that all member states have to follow and abide by certain laws of the European Union. Now at first instance, this sounds obvious, join a club and you play by their rules, right?

Well, it means that if Parliament pass legislation (as they do), and it is incompatible with an EU treaty, then the EU law prevails. Does this then mean Parliament are supreme? If they cannot make certain laws in the county they run? This became a massive uproar, because it was effectively unelected members making laws that apply to the UK. It means that Parliament are elected to legislate within the UK, while the rest of the member states have a majority say in what happens within the EU, which then applied in the UK.

You may have seen within the many Facebook status’ about the referendum people saying ‘take back our sovereignty’ or something, I know I did, this is what they meant.

Another question is then, if we leave the European Union, what happens with the European Convention on Human Rights?

So, debrief on Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights is not the same as the European Union. We then have the Human Rights Act 1998, which applies the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights in the UK. If we leave the EU, we will still have the European Convention on Human Rights which applies in the UK.